The Profiling of Serial Killers and Criminals (Essay Example)

On average, an individual walks past 16 serial killers in their lifetime. Profiling is used every day to catch them. Intriguingly, as a young person, I always wanted to be part of the FBI and do something in the criminal field to stop killers and maybe even get into profiling. An examination of the profiling of serial killers and criminals provides an overview of what profiling is, information on how it is used in a real case, the reasons behind why they kill, and ways that their behavior can be reversed and how professionals can stop it. 

Profiling is a system for understanding and classifying violent killers. A person, called a profiler, will examine the details of cases, investigate the crime scene, and look at the victims, and will find specific and unique behaviors of the killer (Rosen 62). The profiler can then go through police reports and evaluate the autopsy to later make the actual profile and give the profile to the local police. Profilers also typically do a profile of the victim, which they call "victimology." From their wound patterns, profilers can tell a lot about the killer, like their preferred method of killing and sometimes what their signature is and what their method of killing may be (Rosen 62). For example, if the perpetrator likes to torture their victims, then they are a sadistic killer. After the profiling process is done and the interview with the killer begins, they have to build trust with them so that you can learn more about them.

This source contains information about a series of rapes and murders in a given area. When the case first began, the FBI and the police weren’t even sure how many people were involved; they thought it may be possible that there were multiple people involved (Wilson 14), which shows how difficult profiling can be. This case was specifically difficult because there was an eyewitness and DNA evidence, yet the FBI still wasn’t able to catch the perpetrator. They knew that the killer was located somewhere in Los Vegas, but they still weren’t able to find him. There was a program that software developers made that allowed evidence from certain crime scenes to be put in and that would narrow down the search to within a few blocks of where the killer resided (Wilson 14). This software helped the case a lot because it gave a specific area of where the killer lived and it narrowed it down to approximately 100–200 people, which makes the profiling process a lot easier. After the profile is made, they give it to the local police enforcement. That way, they can prevent more murders from occurring. Afterward, they can conduct an interview with the killer and evaluate why they were killed. 

A serial killer or a killer in general is typically killed with rage and anger. They are also most commonly male (Lemonick 48). This source talks about an anthrax attack and how the profile of those involved will state how they have become mission-oriented suddenly and how they will seem focused and preoccupied during their planning and the time of the attacks. The perpetrators may have been self-medicating and had become obsessed with reading the paper and watching the news when the story broke out (Lemonick 48). They could find all of this information from a simple profile of the attacker. Many murderers kill simply because of the way their brain is wired, and with that in mind, it can lead to a way of stopping their compulsive thoughts and actions. 

As infants, specific things can make people's brains develop in a way that can produce criminal and aggressive behavior. Those things are stress, violence, and other similar experiences as younger kids (Weyant 31). To prevent criminal behavior from occurring in the future, it's important to keep young brains from experiencing those things. On the other hand, in adults, it’s much harder to control adult brains, so sometimes it becomes necessary for therapeutic drugs to come into play (Weyant 31). With that being said, a lot of criminal behavior stems from the way someone's brain is wired. For instance, when someone is short-tempered because of the way their brain is, it will sometimes cause aggressive behaviors. With many criminals, there are also problems with their prefrontal cortex, so their personality is drastically affected. A variety of criminals have what you call pathological aggression, and to potentially eliminate that, you can use what they call biological intervention, which is a variety of ways that allow you to get rid of certain forms of behavior (Weyant 31). To make biological intervention occur, you need to have some background knowledge of genes. Genes allow you to manipulate the fundamental and physical processes (Weyant 31). This basically means that you are mapping the brain, which allows control of brain activity in a certain way. If the government allowed manipulation of the genes to occur, then many criminals would be helped, resulting in a reduced sentence for some and altering the criminals' or prisoners' behaviors as a whole.

Through research and a deep examination of the text, information on what profiling is, how profiling is used in real cases, the reasons behind why serial killers kill, and ways that it can be prevented and how the behavior of them can be reversed, as well as a deeper understanding of how professionals can stop it, Like thousands of people all over the world, the profiling of serial killers and forensics in general was interesting to me. When analyzing how profiling works, it’s important to understand that all cases that use profiling are different and unique in their own way, so some cases may be more difficult to solve than others. 

Works cited 

Lemonick, Michael D., and Elaine Shannon. “Profile of a Killer.” Time International (South Pacific Edition), no. 46, Nov. 2001, p. 48. EBSCOhost, https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,url,geo,cpid,uid&custid=kansas&geocustid=kansas&db=f5h&AN=5532129&site=ehost-live. 

Rosen, Marjorie. “Getting inside the Mind of a Serial Killer.” Biography, vol. 1, no. 10, Oct. 1997, p. 62. EBSCOhost, https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,url,geo,cpid,uid&custid=kansas&geocustid=kansas&db=f5h&AN=9710052625&site=ehost-live.

Weyant, R. G. “Criminal Behavior and the Ethics of Biological Intervention.” Humanist, vol. 65, no. 5, Sept. 2005, pp. 31–37. EBSCOhost, https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,url,geo,cpid,uid&custid=kansas&geocustid=kansas&db=f5h&AN=17998873&site=ehost-live.

Wilson, Jennifer. “Mapping Murder.” Geographical (Campion Interactive Publishing), vol. 74, no. 11, Nov. 2002, p. 14. EBSCOhost, https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,url,geo,cpid,uid&custid=kansas&geocustid=kansas&db=f5h&AN=7716813&site=ehost-live.